Cylinder of an internal-combustion engine



April 1929. T. THORNYCROFT CYLINDER OF AN INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE Filed May 4, 1928 Patented Apr. 9, 1929.

TOM THOR'NYCIEEOFT, OFWESTMINSTER, ENGLAND.

CYLlINDER OF AN INTERNAL-COMBUSTION ENGINE. v

This invention relates to the cylinders of internalcombustion engines, each provided at one end with'a head or cover formed with a combustionchamber or cavity extending over a or under fuel and exhaust valves and communicating with the cylinder through an opening of restrict-ed area, such chamber 1 being designed to produce turbulence of the charge of combustible fuel and air within it in during the compression stroke of the engine piston. 1

The object of the present invention is to provide aturbulence combustion chamber wherein more complete interminglingof the i5 combustible charge of fuel and air is obtained than is obtainable with combustion chambers as heretofore constructed.

For this purpose, according to the invention, an internal combustion engine cylin- 2o der is provided with a head or cover formed with a turbulence chamber extending over or under movable fuel inlet and exhaust valves and communicating with the cylinder through a restricted opening, one of the sides of the said chamber adjacent to the restricted opening being at all points substantially normal to the plane of the piston while the opposite side of the said chamber, adjacent to the said opening, is inclined at an acute angle to the plane of the piston in a direction towards the side that is normal to the said plane.

By these means the two streams of a combustible charge set up by the expulsion of the charge from the two spaces situated between the piston and the portions of the cylinder head or cover located at opposite sides of the outlet opening from the turbulence chamber and situated over the bore of the cylinder, are caused. to act in the same sense and to intermingle in such a way that the turbulence takes the form of a complete swirl of all the charge in the combustion chamber, rather than a turbulence composed of two more or less separate swirls of charge rotating in opposite directions, as in previous constructions of cylinder heads having a turbulence chamber.

The invention can advantageously be applied to the cylinders of internal combustion engines having a head or cover. with various constructions of turbulence chamber and par-- ticularly to cylinder heads or covers having a turbulence chamber which, in other respects, is like that described in the specification of my former Letters Patent No. 1,644,860.

In the accompanying illustrative drawings,

Application flied May l, 1928, Serial No. 275,163, and in Great Britain July 15, 1927.

Fig. 1 is a section on the line II of Fig. 2 and Fig. 2 a section on the line II-II Fig. 1, of part of an engine cylinder provided with a combustion head or cover having a turbulence chamber constructed according to the present invention. Fig. 3 is an underside view of the combustion chamber shown in Figs. 1 and 2. Fig. 4 is a section on the line IV- [V of Fig. 1. Fig. 5 shows a number of addltional cross sections of the turbulence chamber, taken on the successive lines 5 5 5, 5", 5 from left to right of Fig. 1.

In the construction shown in the drawings, 1 is an engine cylinder provided with a com- 7 bustion head or cover 2 having therein a turb-- ulence chamber 3 of gradually decreasing cross sectional area from its inlet end 3, which is broad and arranged over fuel inlet and exhaust valves 4; and 5 and ports 4.- and 5 (Figs. 1 and 2) at one side of the cylinder, to the outlet end 3* which is comparatively narrow compared with the diameter of the engine piston 6 and extends diametrically and entirely across the bore of the cylinder and the B0 piston therein, the roof of the chamber 3 inclining downwardly towards and terminating at the opposite side of the cylinder at 3 where it curves downward and terminates in a straight portion normal to the plane of the piston, as in the construction of turbulence chamber describedin my said former specification.

According to the present invention, and as shown in Figs. 3, 4 and 5, one of the side walls, namely 3, of the outlet 3* of the turbulence chamber 3 is at all points substantially normal to the plane of the piston 6 whilst the opposite side wall 3 of the said outlet is inclined upwardly and inwardly at an acute g5 angle to the plane of the piston and in a direction towards the side wall 3 As a result, the two sides of the outlet opening 3 of the turbulence chamber 3 are, as seen in plan, not as heretofore symmetrically arranged, one of them 3 being more or less straight and the other 3 concave, the two sides blending one into the other by a curved portion at the side of the cylinder bore remote from the valves 4 and 5. Also the areas 7 and 7 of the portions of the cylinder head or cover 2 at opposite sides of the said outlet 3 and located over the piston 6 are unequal as shown in Fig. 3, that part 7 adjacent to the outlet having an inclined side 3 bein of greater area than the part 7 at the opposite slde of the outlet. By this means, the two streams of the combustion charge set u by the expulsion of the charge from the cy inder, on the compression of the charge between the piston and cylinder head or cover, at opposite sides of the outlet and moving towards each other, are caused to act against each other in such manner as they enter the turbulence chamber 3, as to form within the chamber a single swirling stream, as indicated by the arrows in Fig.4, that can afterwards be ignited and utilized in an advantageous manner for effecting the next working outstroke of the piston.

What I claim is 1. A combined cylinder, combustion head and working piston for an internal combustion engine, said combustion head having therein a turbulence chamber communicating with the cylinder through a restricted outlet and having one of its sides adjacent to said outlet, substantially normal to the plane of the piston and its opposite side, adjacent to said outlet, inelinedat an acute angle to the plane of the piston.

2. A combined cylinder, combustion head and working piston for an internal combustion engine, said combustion head having therein a turbulance chamber communicating with the cylinder through a restricted outlet extending entirely across the bore of said cylinder, said chamber having one of its sidesfadjacent to said outlet, substantially normal to the plane of the piston and the opposite side, adjacent to said outlet, inclined at an acute angle to the plane of the cylinder.

3. A combined cylinder, combustion head and working piston for an internal combustion engine, said combustion head having therein a turbulence chamber extending from a position at one side of the cylinder where are situated fuel inlet and exhaust valves and communicating with the interior of theeylinder through a restricted outlet, one of the sides of said turbulence chamber, adjacent to said outlet,being substantially normal to the plane of said piston while the opposite side of said chamber, adjacent to said outlet, is inclined at an acute angle to the plane of said piston in a direction towards the first mentioned side.

4. A combined cylinder, combustion head and working piston for an internal combustion engine, said combustion head having therein a turbulence chamber extending from a position at one side of the cylinder where are situated fuel inlet and exhaust valves and communicating with the interior of the cylinder through a diametrically arranged outlet of less width than the diameter of said cylinder and extending entirely across the diameter of said cylinder, one of the sides of said turbulence chamber, adjacent to said outlet, being substantially normal to the plane of said piston while the opposite side of said chamber, adjacent to said outlet, is inclined at an acute angle to the plane of said piston in a direction towards the first mentioned side.

5. For an internal combustion engine having a cylinder and a piston therein, a combustion head having a turbulence chamber the outlet of which is of less area than that of the bore of the cylinder to which the head is to be ap lied, said chamber having one of its sides, a jacent to said outlet, substantially normal to the plane of said outlet and its opposite side, adjacent to said outlet, inclined at an acute angle to said plane.

6. For an internal combustion engine having a cylinder anda piston therein, a combustion head having a turbulence chamber the outlet of which is of such length as to extend across the bore of the cylinder to which the head is to be applied but of less width than the diameter of said bore, one of the sides of said chamber, adjacent to said outlet being normal to the plane of said outlet and the opposite side of said chamber, adjacent to said outlet being inclined at an acute angle to said plane.

7. For an internal combustion engine having a cylinder and a working piston therein, a combustion head having therein a turbulence chamber of greater horizontal length than the diameter of the engine cylinder with which said combustion head is to be used and of gradually decreasing cross sectional area from its inlet end to its outlet end where it has an outlet of less area than that of the bore of said cylinder, one of the side walls of said turbulence chamber, adjacent to said outlet, being substantially normalto the plane of said outlet and the opposite side wall of said chamber, adjacent to the said outlet, being inclined at an acute angle to said plane.

8. For an internal combustion engine having a cylinder and a working piston therein, a combustion head having therein a turbulence chamber of greater horizontal length that the diameter of the engine cylinder with which said combustion head is to be used and of gradually decreasing cross sectional area from its inlet end to its outlet end where 1t has an outlet of less width than the diameter of the said cylinder and adapted to extend" diametrically and entirely across the end of said cylinder, one of the side walls of said turbulence chamber, adjacent to said outlet being substantially normal to the plane of said-outlet and the opposite side wall of said chamber, adjacent to the said outlet, being inclined at an acute angle to said plane.

Signed at London this eighteenth day of April, 1928.

TOM THORNYCROFT. 

